1. Lean Startup Experiences
From Bootstrapping to Growth Hacking

2. Remo Uherek
• 30 years
• BA in Business (Uni Basel)
• Entrepreneur for 10+ years
• Founded Small-n-Tall GmbH in 2003
 Idea incubator
• Founded Trigami AG in 2007, sold in 2011
 Social Media Marketing network
• Meditation practitioner

3. What is a Startup?
„A human institution designed to create a new
product or service under conditions of extreme
uncertainty“
- Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

4. What is a Startup?
„...new product or service...“
Innovation! Not a restaurant.
(nothing wrong with a restaurant...)

5. What is a Startup?
„... extreme uncertainty...“
 Most startups fail. Yes it‘s painful.
But that‘s the reality. Embrace it!

6. We need a new framework how
we build and run Startups

7. New Startup Framework
• Not „Startups“ or „Products“

8. New Startup Framework
• Not „Startups“ or „Products“
 „Experiments“
 „See what sticks“

9. New Startup Framework
• Spend 1 year building your product

10. New Startup Framework
• Spend 1 year building your product
 Talk to customers first
 Only build stuff you have
validated first

11. New Startup Framework
• Incorporate a company, find an accountant, ...

12. New Startup Framework
• Incorporate a company, find an accountant, ...
 Don‘t „play“ business
 Find a real problem to solve
 Do admin stuff once you have a
real business (most often you
don‘t...)

13. New Startup Framework
• Raise money from investors

14. New Startup Framework
• Raise money from investors
 Bootstrap as long as you can
 Use pre-orders
 Use upfront-payments
 Use PayPal to ask for money
 (Use Crowdfunding) don‘t expect too much

15. ZenFriend Case Study

16. #1: Idea
• Meditation very important part of my life
• Used Runkeeper successfully for my running
 IDEA: I want a Runkeeper for my meditation!

17. #2: Market Opportunity
• There are several successful meditation apps
with up to 1m of users
• I‘ve tested them all, nothing satisfied me
 Market opportunity validated!

18. #3: Use Growth Hacking
• Use Growth Hacking and Guerilla Marketing to
attract Early Adopters
• Build a quick „ghetto“ landingpage, e.g. using
a $10 template (e.g. on wrapbootstrap.com)
• Use Mailchimp.com and Sumome.com to
collect email addresses

19. #3: Use Growth Hacking
• Use Growth Hacking and Guerilla Marketing to
attract Early Adopters
Within 2 months 900 people on waiting list

20. #3: Use Growth Hacking
• Use Growth Hacking and Guerilla Marketing to
attract Early Adopters
 Within 2 months 900 people on waiting list

21. #4: Outsource development
• Found great outsourcing partners from Russia
by using Elance, Odesk, Freelancer.com

22. #4: Outsource development
• Found great outsourcing partners from Russia
by using Elance, Odesk, Freelancer.com
 Total costs = less than $10k from idea to
finished product

23. #5: Use Growth Hacking
• Used our waiting list
• My own list of friends
• Reddit

24. #5: Use Growth Hacking

25. #5: Use Growth Hacking
• Used our waiting list
• My own list of friends
• Reddit
 Almost 3000 downloads in first 30 days!

26. ZenFriend Case Study
• Total project costs so far: less than $15k
• Idea in Jan 2014, launched in May 2014
• Didn‘t incorporate new company: used old
Small-n-Tall GmbH umbrella
(if you don‘t have one, just create an Association (“Verein“) for the time
being, it just takes 1 hour and doesn‘t cost anything)
• Used Growth Hacking and Guerilla Marketing
• Tracking everything

27. ZenFriend Case Study

28. ZenFriend Case Study
• Note: Even with all these steps, success is
never guaranteed!!

29. ZenFriend Case Study
• Note: Even with all these steps, success is
never guaranteed!! NEVER!

30. ZenFriend Case Study
• Note: Even with all these steps, success is
never guaranteed!! NEVER! NEVER!

31. ZenFriend Case Study
• Note: Even with all these steps, success is
never guaranteed!! NEVER! NEVER! EVER!

32. ZenFriend Case Study
• Note: Even with all these steps, success is
never guaranteed!! NEVER! NEVER! EVER!
• All you can do is create the best conditions
possible. Everything else is out of your control.
• If ZenFriend fails? Yes that would hurt. Still:
We‘ll create a new experiment.
• That‘s what entrepreneurs do. They create
experiments. Until something sticks.

33. Personal Learnings
• Nothing more frustrating than a „living-dead“
product  courage to „kill“ experiments
• Don‘t take funding unless you have reached
product/market fit. Else you lose important
flexibility as you „lock yourself in“.
• Keep experimenting, until you stumble upon
something great, often happens by accident
• Keep costs low, bootstrap the heck out of it

34. How to learn more in 1 day than
running the business for 6 months
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Rk0c3axtI

35. YouTube Eric Ries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGXAVw3vF9A

36. Thank you!
Blog: remo.fm
Twitter: @remouherek
Slides: slideshare.net/remouherek